


50 Sentences

by unsettled



Category: Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Genre: 1 Sentence Fiction, Bloodplay, Challenge Response, Cuddling, Eyes, Gen, Hats, M/M, Madness, Painplay, Tea, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-20
Updated: 2010-06-20
Packaged: 2017-10-10 04:53:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unsettled/pseuds/unsettled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the 50sentences challenge</p>
            </blockquote>





	50 Sentences

Set Elipson

1\. Motion  
He's not moving, yet the world is still spinning about him, fragmenting, turning upside down and inside out; long hands and narrow lips are required to still his mind.

2\. Cool  
The teacups are full of white, the scones and jam pots and spoons dusted with flakes of snow, and his breath is alive in frozen air, mingling with another's.

3\. Young  
She looks nothing like the child that appeared so many years ago, and Stayne doesn't know how a madman could have seen it before he did.

4\. Last  
He does not touch him, does not speak to him, does not approach him, his hands hanging empty at his sides, and in the desperate longing he holds in check, he is finding it true; love is the last thing to die.

5\. Wrong  
Tarrant always thought he would be the first to give in.

6\. Gentle  
He is trapped by the first touch, and the second, and the third, but it is all the ones afterwards that are gentle.

7\. One  
There is one hat he wants to make right now, make it of shadows and anger and spun out pain, a hat that matches his madness, a hat that he can see so clearly, a hat that he will never make.

8\. Thousand  
He wishes they had more than this; a thousand nights would still be too few, and his hands are reluctant to let go.

9\. King  
Stayne barely had a chance to meet the king before he lost his head, but his eyes where almost familiar.

10\. Learn  
It is an important lesson; one of them must learn some restraint.

11\. Blur  
He can hardly stand the terror that he feels the first time he picks up a weapon after losing his eye, but his sword is still a dangerous blur in the air, too fast to follow, too fast to escape.

12\. Wait  
He settles the hat on his head and waits for the madness to recede, but the scent of burning flesh continues to taint his mind.

13\. Change  
Tarrant can remember the way Ilosovic used to look, a long, long time ago, and he barely recognizes the man striding arrogantly down the length of the table.

14\. Command  
Stayne knows better than to command anything from Tarrant that he is not prepared to receive.

15\. Hold  
The tremors threaten to shake the hatter apart; the knave pulls him closer and holds on.

16\. Need  
He is nothing but a bundle of nerve endings and flayed flesh, burning under the touch of a one eyed monster, a monster who could be a saint if he'd just give him what he wants, what he needs…

17\. Vision  
His eyes are full of the man stepping from the shadows of the trees, joining him at his midnight tea party, and it isn't until his lips part beneath the others' that he realizes it's not a dream.

18\. Attention  
There is enough noise and movement and danger to distract the best, but his attention is riveted to one figure, one figure that no one else is watching.

19\. Soul  
Ilosovic wonders sometimes if his soul is irreversibly stained; but then, surely the hatter would not love something damned.

20\. Picture  
They make a pretty picture, the two of them, all pale limbs and mingled fire and night, discarded beetle black armor tangled with gaudy ribbons and coattails; she may not exactly approve, but she will not be the one to break their hearts.

21\. Fool  
His heart stops with the fall of the axe, realization dawning on him with horrible clarity; the hat rises, and his heart goes with it.

22\. Mad  
Tarrant may be mad, stark raving and gibbering, but it only makes it easier to recognize it in others.

23\. Child  
His childhood ended the first time he got his hands on the makings of a hat, his genius quickly recognized, and innocence is replaced with endless work and burning fumes.

24\. Now  
They are all gone, to here and there and elsewhere; Tarrant lives in the past among his memories, and trust that someone will wake him when they return.

25\. Shadow  
A shadow blots out the sunlight on his face, and his eyes open to long legs and long arms and raised eyebrows.

26\. Goodbye  
It is a word neither of them says, because there was no time, because there was no reason, because there was still hope.

27\. Hide  
If he closes his eyes, Tarrant thinks, maybe the madness will not find him.

28\. Fortune  
A madman offered to tell him his fortune once; he wishes he had let him.

29\. Safe  
This is the only place he ever feels safe, wrapped in distorted arms, flat against pale chest, his head tucked under that sharp chin, and if the world would leave them alone, he would never move again.

30\. Ghost  
There is another guest at his table, sipping tea and chucking scones, and Tarrant smiles at him; never mind that he casts no shadow.

31\. Book  
He could write volumes describing the man beneath him, but he has no paper at hand; instead, he scribes meaningless words against pale skin with his fingers.

32\. Eye  
Stayne remembers when the hatter's eyes were not a sickly shade of absinthe, when they didn't turn to molten copper in rage, when they were the same blue as the sky at midday, when they actually saw him, rather than looking right through him.

33\. Never  
She will never understand what they see in each other, but the looks they give each other are blatantly affectionate, and she merely shakes her head in bewilderment.

34\. Sing  
When all the world was one court of light and peace, he danced to the songs of an exquisitely talented knave; now that voice is as lost along with eye and heart.

35\. Sudden  
It was far from sudden, this realization that Tarrant would never get better, would instead continue to decline, sliding away into madness for longer and longer periods; it was slow, and painful, much as was the decision to leave.

36\. Stop  
He wishes he could stop the words as they spill out of his mouth, but the disconnect between body and mind and wants is nothing new.

37\. Time  
There is no time to dance around the subject, no time to hide it behind careful wording and hesitant guesses; I love you, he says, and waits for the reply.

38\. Wash  
It is shame and anger and fear that drive him to strike out; it is terror that sends him running, hands stained, and while the blood will wash off, nothing will remove the marks of what he has done,

39\. Torn  
His loyalties lie with one court, his heart with another, and in the end he has neither.

40\. History  
People have a tendency to pretend that Stayne has no history, that he appeared out of nowhere with nothing and gained his fearsome reputation shortly after, but Tarrant remembers gangly limbs and wide eyes and wonders where they went.

41\. Power  
His mistress has power over dead things, and he is half tempted to ask her for a favor.

42\. Bother  
It is a great deal of fuss and bother over something so small; It was just a tart, he thinks, and then he is not thinking at all, and the red queen is holding his eye like some rare delicacy, and he watches through the tears hazing his remaining eye as she devours it.

43\. God  
Ilosovic knows who his god is, who he worships, who he loves and fears; not a head and ego of epic proportions, but a man clothed in violent color and pride and madness.

44\. Wall  
The wall is bruising against his back as Tarrant pushes him against it, following after to latch onto his mouth with hungry kisses, hips digging into Stayne's, and he slides his hands down to tug at tucked shirts and belted pants.

45\. Naked  
He wants to wake this way every morning from now until forever, naked and drowsy, tangled in white sheets and white light and white limbs.

46\. Drive  
In the moments of clarity and emptiness that follow the raving, the shaking, the loss of control, Tarrant wonders what it was exactly that drove Ilosovic away.

47\. Harm  
They meant no harm, innocently believing that they could both walk away from this with whole hearts; neither did.

48\. Precious  
He wishes he had not given so precious a thing to a madman, for he will surely lose it or destroy it or forget all about it in his fits, but it is too late now; Tarrant holds his heart.

49\. Hunger  
It is not tea he wants, or scones, or jam filled tarts; it is white scared skin and bruised lips and salty liquid on his tongue and long fingers teasing him open.

50\. Believe  
Nothing is impossible if you truly believe in it, and Ilosovic bends his mind to believing that it will all end well.


End file.
